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| If we were truly a Christian nation, we would be asking questions like "For whom would the crucified Jesus seek the death penalty?" (Wikipedia map) |
President-elect Donald Trump recently addressed one of his Christmas post to the "Radical Left Lunatics who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections, and are always going after the Great Citizens and Patriots of the United States but in particular, their Political Opponent, ME."
In the post he falsely claims that "Sleepy Joe Biden" pardoned death row prisoners (Biden did commute the sentences of 37 convicted murderers to "life without the possibility of parole" but did not in fact pardon them).
Trump goes on to say, "I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky 'souls' but instead will say, GO TO H___!"
I'm not sure Trump, while continuing to promote his $59.99 Bibles, actually claims to be a Christian, but I can't help comparing his words to those of 16th century reformer Menno Simons, who wrote the following to the professed Christian rulers of his day:
"It would hardly become a true Christian ruler to shed blood, for this reason: If the transgressor should truly repent before God and be reborn of him, he would then also be a chosen saint and child of God, a fellow partaker of God's grace, a spiritual member of Christ's body... (F)or such an one to be hanged from the gallows, put on the wheel, placed on the stake, or in any manner be hurt in body or goods by another Christian...would look somewhat strange and unbecoming in light of the compassionate, merciful, kind nurture, disposition, spirit and example of Christ... which example he has commanded all his chosen children to follow. Again, if he remain impenitent, and his life be taken, one would unmercifully rob him of the time of repentance of which, if his life were spared, he might yet avail himself."
Thousands of 16th and 17th century "free church" believers (nicknamed Anabaptists, meaning re-baptizers), of whom Simons was a respected leader, were victims of capital punishment. Many of their stories, of being drowned, burned at the stake, beheaded and otherwise tortured and condemned to death by both Catholic and Protestant state church authorities, are recorded in the over 1150-page "Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians." Their primary crimes were to insist on the right and responsibility of everyone to make a personal choice to align themselves with a community of faith of their choice and to avoid the use of violence to impose their will on others by force or by military means.
Since that time, both the Roman Catholic church and most mainline Christian denominations have officially opposed the death penalty. Many of today's evangelical and fundamentalist churches, however, strongly defend the practice.
